Chapter 27: The Future

“Let’s just go in.” After knocking on the door for a few minutes without a response, Duogaluo made this decision.

“Maybe the witch isn’t home?” Nagu suggested, seeing Duogaluo lift his foot to kick the door. “Why don’t we wait a bit longer?”

“She never goes out; she must be home.” Without hesitation, Duogaluo kicked the witch’s wooden door open. “Didn’t expect her hearing to be so bad that she can’t even hear knocking.”

“By the way, even if this witch is too old to speak clearly, you mustn’t ask her name. Don’t forget that.” Duogaluo reminded Nagu before entering.

Seeing her nod, he stepped inside.

Nagu stood at the witch’s door, took a deep breath to muster her courage, and followed Duogaluo.

As expected, the witch’s room looked like a mix of a haunted house and a crime scene. Wooden shelves emitting a decaying smell were everywhere, filled with sealed dark clay jars. Nagu could guess what was inside—probably either organs or insects. Animal skins were nailed to the walls, with the smooth, hairless side facing out, covered in unsettling, blood-drawn pictures. Bones and insects were common ‘decorations’ in the room. The witch’s rafters were also hung with many things, but unlike the cleanly wrapped food in Duogaluo’s house, the witch’s rafters had animal corpses hanging from them. The corpses were tied with many dried herbs, seemingly to remove the smell. Although most of the smell was gone, the insects on the corpses…

“That’s why I said you should stay at my place,” Duogaluo said helplessly, looking at Nagu, who was covering her mouth and gagging. “You can still leave now.”

Nagu shook her head, trying to stay conscious.

“See, you’re scared.”

“I’m… not scared.” Not at all, I’m terrified!!

Nagu’s mind was screaming. This house was even more intense than the outside; everything that could remind someone of death was crammed into this stinky house!

Duoagaluo looked at the stubborn Nagu, then put his arm around her shoulder and turned her towards the left corner of the room. “Look at the thing next to that shelf.”

Nagu instinctively followed Duogaluo’s pointing finger. There was a complete human mummy wedged between the shelf and the wall, its hollow eye sockets staring eerily outside.

“Ahhh!!!”

Caught off guard, Nagu screamed while Duogaluo laughed heartily beside her. “See, I told you you were scared, but you wouldn’t admit it.”

Nagu was panting in terror, feeling like she couldn’t stay here any longer. Every second felt unbearable. No, she had to stay. She needed to figure out what was going on with Hamoyin, or else Hamoyin would keep getting his scales plucked.

“Let’s go, come back with me,” Duogaluo said, looking down at the little girl in his arms. Her eyes were red as if she would burst into tears if scared again. “Someone else will take care of the old lady.”

“I-I’ll take care of her,” Nagu said, trying to steady her voice, which was still trembling. “These things aren’t that scary.”

“Really? Then who was screaming just now?”

“…” No, I can’t show weakness. I’ve killed a leopard before, even if it ended in mutual injury. I can’t act so foolishly. Nagu quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. “Let me do it.”

Seeing that Nagu was determined, Duogaluo shrugged. “Alright, but if you change your mind, just let me know.”

“Mm-hmm.” Nagu tried not to let her eyes wander around the room. “Where’s the witch? I haven’t seen her since we came in.”

“She should be sleeping inside.” Duogaluo walked past the wooden shelves towards the inner part of the house, with Nagu quickly following behind. “Behind that curtain.”

Behind the shelves filled with earthen jars was a small corridor, only three or four steps long. At the end was a curtain made of dried flowers. Duogaluo pushed aside the curtain and went in. “She’s in here.”

Nagu followed inside. The space behind the curtain was very narrow, but there were no scary things. The floor was covered with fluffy fur, and hand-woven baskets filled with dried flowers were everywhere. The lighting was also excellent. For Nagu, the most intriguing thing in this small compartment was something hanging on the wall.

It looked like a spine? But much thinner. This ‘spine’ was very clean, with each small bone segment fixed together with interlocking wood, forming a complete long shape hanging on the wall.

Nagu noticed that Duogaluo also glanced at the bones a few times, but soon, his gaze shifted to the old woman curled up in the corner of the small compartment, sleeping soundly despite the commotion outside.

“Sleeping so peacefully, even with all that noise outside.”

“…Should we wait for her to wake up?” Nagu looked at the peacefully breathing old woman. “Maybe I should just sit here and wait. You can go do your things.”

“I don’t have anything to do. I’ve already coordinated the time for the ritual with the other witches, and the tribe members are preparing the offerings. My part starts on the day of the ritual.” Duogaluo said as he sat on the fur rug, picking up the unfinished basket beside the old woman and starting to weave. “Just as well. I can have a good chat with you now. Consider it a leader’s inquiry.”

“Chat about what?” Nagu asked as she sat down next to Duogaluo, watching him skillfully weave the basket with the prepared dry grass, the edges slowly taking shape under his hands.

Who would have thought that this muscular man was so good at handicrafts? Nagu thought silently.

“Let’s talk about what you plan to do next. Didn’t you say you planned to go to the sea people?” Duogaluo glanced at Nagu. “After visiting our village, do you still want to go to the sea people?”

Plans for the future? I just want to go home, back to where I belong.

Nagu sighed. She couldn’t really say that to Duogaluo, and it seemed unlikely she could go home now. “I think your village is great…”

“Right? No one would refuse our protection, so just stay here peacefully.” Duogaluo smiled at Nagu. “The Mother Goddess sent you to me, so you should stay here.”

Mother Goddess…

Maybe I should take this chance to ask something. Nagu thought, deciding to start with the ritual. “Duogaluo, can I ask you something?”

“Sure, ask anything you want.”

“What exactly do you do in the ritual?”

“We offer our sacrifices to the Mother Goddess, hoping she will grant us gifts.” Duoagaluo paused his weaving, speaking seriously. “Different sacrifices bring different gifts. This time, we hope to get some medicine.”

Speaking of medicine, Nagu remembered the strange ointment that healed Hamoyin’s wound overnight. “Different sacrifices bring different gifts?”

Duogaluo nodded. “Of course, sometimes we get nothing, and instead, we have to pay a greater price.”

“A greater price is…?”

“Anything you can think of could be the greater price.” Duogaluo didn’t hide anything, feeling that Nagu was almost one of their village members now, so she had the right to know about the ritual.

It seems I was wrong before. Although the ritual is indeed like a transaction, Nagu now understands that this transaction with the ‘Mother Goddess’ is not equal. “Isn’t that dangerous? Is it necessary?”

“Would we do anything unnecessary?” Duogaluo smiled and asked Nagu. “It’s because we do this that we have enough strength to fight those monsters. Otherwise, we would just be their food.” As he spoke, Duogaluo took off the stone ornament he usually wore on his wrist and clenched it tightly in his fist, and when he opened his hand again, the ornament had turned into a pile of fine debris.

“For us, the ritual is like this,” Duogaluo said, throwing the stone debris into the hand-woven basket. “But it’s ironic that the power we gain comes from offering parts of the monsters’ bodies to the Mother Goddess.”

Monsters, parts of their bodies.

Nagu felt she had heard the most crucial information but couldn’t show it. She had to probe slowly. “You mean monsters…?”

“The ritual method has been passed down from previous generations. Our father tried to capture monsters and kill them as offerings to the Mother Goddess, but the sacrifices were great.” At this point, Duogaluo paused, and Nagu noticed his gaze shift to the ‘spine’ hanging on the wall.

“What’s with that spine?” Nagu asked instinctively. Duogaluo smiled at her question.

“That’s not a spine. It’s Hamoyin’s tail.”

What did he say?

Naguru felt like she had been hit on the head.

Hamoyin’s… Hamoyin’s tail!?

Duogaluo was looking at the tail, lost in thought, not noticing Nagu’s mixed expression of shock and pain. “Hamoyin appeared a long time ago when our father failed to capture a monster. He saved me and a few other children used as bait from the monster.”

“Besides rescuing us, he also killed a monster and brought it back to our tribe, saying he could always…”

“I can always bring back and kill monsters for you because I am also a monster. When I can no longer bring back monsters, I can give you my scales or tail for the ritual.”

The boy speaking had pale skin, messy black hair, and was covered in the stench of fresh blood.

The boy dragged the corpse of an adult monster, looking at the human leader in front of him.

“As long as you promise me one condition.”

Apart from the golden vertical pupils, scales on his back, and the long tail trailing behind him, he looked no different from a human child.

“Make me human.” The boy repeated urgently, with a tone full of longing.
“I want to become human.”